Fifteen years old, the annual London Design Festival at its hub in the V&A, at Somerset House, Granary Square and throughout the city is bigger, bolder, braver and crucially more inclusive – representing voices from the international creative communities. Here are some of our highlights.

Bentley design director Stefan Sieflaff introduces the new Continental GT, explaining the design of this luxury grand tourer, its 007 inspired rotating display, and his plans for the marque including making one-off commissions through Bentley Mulliner.

The Serpentine Galleries CEO Yana Peel and artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist are challenging how we look at and digest art with a programme that should provoke debates around arts and ideas. I interviewed Peel to find out more

Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet studies the ultimate in luxury electric driving for the Mercedes-Benz pinnacle sub-brand. Exhibited at Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance this week, it recalls a more innocent time when coachbuilders sculpted hand-finished, exclusive cabriolets. To me it is a smile and a nod to my favourite era, the world of Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, the […]

This is the latest Range Rover Velar, a handsome mid-size premium SUV, designed to be bought from the heart. It carves a new space within the Land Rover family to live somewhere between the flagship Range Rover and the popular compact Evoque. Having first seen it at the company design studio, then on stage at the […]

The Visual History of Type published by Laurence King explores the history of type from its advent to the present day. If like me you have an interest in type design and its history, or are involved in the world of design, then the book is a must read.

Fifteen years old, the annual London Design Festival at its hub in the V&A, at Somerset House, Granary Square and throughout the city is bigger, bolder, braver and crucially more inclusive – representing voices from the international creative communities. Here are some of our highlights.

Bentley design director Stefan Sieflaff introduces the new Continental GT, explaining the design of this luxury grand tourer, its 007 inspired rotating display, and his plans for the marque including making one-off commissions through Bentley Mulliner.

The Serpentine Galleries CEO Yana Peel and artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist are challenging how we look at and digest art with a programme that should provoke debates around arts and ideas. I interviewed Peel to find out more

Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet studies the ultimate in luxury electric driving for the Mercedes-Benz pinnacle sub-brand. Exhibited at Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance this week, it recalls a more innocent time when coachbuilders sculpted hand-finished, exclusive cabriolets. To me it is a smile and a nod to my favourite era, the world of Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, the […]

Pokemon Go, Kanye West clothing and the Olympic Refugee Flag are some of the designs nominated by the Design Museum in London for the Beazley Designs of the Year.

observations

‘I get my facts from books, stuff on atomisers, the blues, ethyl alcohol, geese in Egyptian glyphs,’ wrote Jean-Michel Basquiat, the American artist who, in his short life (1960­-1988), drew/painted/wrote/made vibrant, radical, exciting, colourful, lyrical, animated imagery.

The Barbican has created an incredible show to reveal Basquiat's raw energy as fresh today as when he began creating in the late 70s in the underground downtown New York art scene, then gaining recognition in the early 80s.

Through word and image Basquiat comes alive as he comments on the injustices in society making clear statements against racism and colonialism. He's inspired by music, free jazz, bepop, Charlie Parker, Beat poetry, art history and philosophy, the abstract expressionist Cy Twombly (my art idol). He takes energy from the clash of high and low art, from downtown NY and the Bronx countercultural scenes, street life, black American life.

What's evident here is that Basquiat gives us a new space for thinking - foreseeing how we navigate our thoughts today.

Basquiat: Boom for Real opened this week as the first large-scale exhibition in the UK of one of the most significant painters of the 20th century.